Bare Min is a minimal Hugo theme for developing and debugging Hugo sites, stripping away all visual clutter so content and template data take center stage.
What is Bare Min?
Bare Min is a Hugo theme component that runs on the Hugo static site generator, distributed via GitHub as github.com/kaushalmodi/hugo-bare-min-theme. It takes a Hugo site's content and renders plain HTML pages with no styling, plus optional debug output from the hugo-debugprint component. The theme was created by Kaushal Modi and is maintained on GitHub, with an example site at hugo-bare-min.netlify.com.
Key Features
- Zero frontend assets — ships no CSS or JavaScript files, producing minimal HTML suitable for debugging and content review.
- Debugprint integration — bundles the
hugo-debugprintpartial so you can output any Hugo template variable's full structure directly into the page. - Hugo Modules installation — requires Go and Hugo v0.92.0+; add the module import to
config.tomland runhugo mod tidy. - Configurable site chrome — Params for
introandfooteraccept Markdown or HTML and appear on every page. - Custom favicon HTML — a
faviconparam lets you paste any favicon link tags, such as apple-touch-icon sets. - Custom CSS paths — a
custom_cssparameter takes an array of stylesheet paths from yourstatic/directory. - Source file links — optional Params
source.url,source.md_dir, andsource.org_diradd per-page links to the Markdown or Org source, useful for ox-hugo workflows.
Who is it for?
Hugo theme developers who want to inspect template variables and layout logic quickly. Authors using ox-hugo (an Emacs Org-mode exporter for Hugo) who need a bare test site that mirrors the official ox-hugo test environment. Site builders who prefer a no-design starting point and want to add their own styling later via the custom_css hook.
Use cases
- Hugo theme developers: render any page with
debugprintto see exactly what data is available in a given template context. - ox-hugo users: set up a test site that matches the official ox-hugo test site for checking exported Org content.
- Minimalist content creators: publish a content-first site with no CSS, using only the configurable
introandfootertext.
How does it work?
Installation is module-based: add the module import to your site configuration, then run hugo mod tidy to fetch the theme and its hugo-debugprint dependency. No layout overrides are needed; the theme's partials render pages with no styling. Set any of the Params in config.toml to customize the header/footer text, favicon, or CSS.
FAQ
Does Bare Min require Go and Hugo Modules?
Yes. The theme depends on hugo mod commands, so you must have Go installed and Hugo version v0.92.0 or newer (as of the last update) to fetch and build the component.
What is the debugprint component?
It's a separate Hugo partial repository that ships with the theme. Calling debugprint in a template dumps the full data structure of any variable to the page, which is invaluable for Hugo theme debugging.
Can I point to source files from each page?
Yes, if you set source.url and source.md_dir or source.org_dir in your site config, each page gets a link to its Markdown or Org source. Note that source.url is mandatory if either of the directory params is set.
